Monday, October 10, 2011

It's been awhile I know. Why? I just haven't felt like posting. But, to bring you up to date, here's what's been going on running wise. I ran the Sioux Falls South Dakota Marathon on 9/11/11. I was trying to Boston Qualify the day before registration opened. It was a nice race, a bit hotter than normal for SD﻿. My only complaint about the organization is that the host hotel is 6 miles from packet pickup and no shuttle was provided. Surely they could add a $5 shuttle option for those of us that stayed in the hotel. Instead your choice is a $25 cab ride. I did find someone to share the cab with, but they need to fix that.

I ran the race, was holding pace for most of the run, but as is usual, had to slow down around mile 22. It was there that I made a major error. I decided that if I had a good potty break, I'd be able to run fast again. I could have finished without the break, but I thought that was my best chance to make goal. Well I took around 2 minutes to break, and missed my time by just over 2 minutes. Oh well, not that big a deal, still my fastest marathon this year. 3:47.

On October 1st I ran a nice flat 5k. I felt pretty good the whole race, and ran my fastest 5k in over a year. 20:59.

Yesterday, Sunday, October 9th my running club took a bus trip to Wichita for the Prairie Fire Full and Half Marathon. I was running the half since I have two longer races coming up in the next month. I'm running 6 hours at 24 the Hard Way, and the New York Marathon in November. I started the half marathon with the single goal of running sub 1:45. I felt that I could achieve this without stressing myself. It was cool and a very light rain was falling. Almost perfect running weather. I started and was holding right at 8 minute miles. My plan was to hold 8's and then pick it up at the 6.65 mark. At mile 5 I was really feeling good so I started picking the pace up. At mile 10 I was still feeling good, so I started running close to 7:30 miles. I ran the last mile at 7:17 and was still feeling good. I finished in 1:41:51 and feel no soreness a day later. I need to run more half's. Hope to talk to you again in less than 2 months.